ESL release IEM Chicago Closed Qualifier invites and bracket
After four teams secured a spot from the open qualifier last night, the remaining four invited teams have been revealed by ESL, as well as the first round matchup for the closed qualifier.
Headlining the invites is Cloud9, who've suffered a fairly major prestige hit by not being directly invited to the competition. Next up are eUnited, who are looking to continue their run of relatively good form by qualifiying for the event in Chicago. The final two invites are the current ESEA MDL champions Bravado, who have recently relocated to a new house in Texas, who join the qualifier alongside league rivals Swole Patrol.
It is also worth mentioning that looking at the brackets for the qualifier, the unknown team of Ange's Big Toe have received the #7 seed, ahead of MDL team BlackOut, who received #8.
The first round match-ups of the IEM Chicago closed qualifier are:
Cloud9 | vs. | BlackOut |
Bravado | vs. | Vision |
Swole Patrol | vs. | oNe |
eUnited | vs. | Ange's Big Toe |
The closed qualifier will take place between August 23rd - 25th in a double elimination format, where the winning team will make it to the $250,000 event in November.